Western Conference
By Betty Hwang
Northwest Division
Denver Nuggets (3)
(projected playoff seeding in parenthesis)
No, this team isn’t the third best team in the West, but they’ll pick up where they left off: as the team that won most of their games after George Karl took over. The addition of point guard Earl Watson will help relieve the Nuggets’ starting guards from playing heavy minutes.

Seattle Supersonics (5)
Seattle will sorely miss their old coach, Nate McMillan, as he was key to their unexpected success last season. It’s largely unknown how new coach Bob Weiss will do. Seattle also doesn’t have many players in the final year of their contracts